It turns out that I wrote most of what I would put here in a comment on day 1, so I’m going to just link to that comment from this post as soon as I can get back in to edit.
Here’s another link to some more information on PDL. I woke up today all excited about going to school, forgetting that we don’t have the advanced class today. Darn! Still, when I got here, my beginners were eager to contribute an idea about who I’d be “talking to” in the imaginary circle part of the warmup, PDL level 1 style. I’m not sure I explained that. The group stands in a circle, and the teacher talks to a being of some sort in the middle of the circle. Kids whispered suggestions to me, and I chose a dog to talk to. The kids have to mimic words and gestures. Then they get to ask about anything they’d heard that they wanted to understand. I got two meaning questions and two grammar questions out of that group. Weird what they wanted to ask about…they say that as long as they get to ask, it’s okay that they don’t understand everything. They like trying to figure out whom I am talking with! I’m not sure that the gestures make sense, especially since I’m not a native speaker, but it helps for me to see in my peripheral vision who’s with me.
MJ's Comprehensible Input 
Hi,
I am really enjoying your PDL descriptions and I have read the link and I think I understand the concept, but I am having trouble really understanding the activities. Could you please do a quick step 1,2, etc. of just one of the activities? Sorry if it is too much trouble, I am just trying to understand what you are doing..
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Hi Mary,
Always glad to try to make things clearer!
I’ll do the “Role Play” activity.
1. Warm the kids up to the target language in whatever the usual way is, maybe using some questions that use the current vocabulary and might direct them toward the game.
2. Place empty chairs in the middle of the room. I put two facing one.
3. Ask the kids what situation they might imagine there. Vote on the choices and choose one.
4. Students volunteer to play the roles and sit in those chairs.
5. Divide the rest of the class into three parts. Each group sits behind “their” player. Their job is to whisper ideas to the role player, in target language. They are giving ideas for moving the game or vocabulary that the player seems to need.
6. The teacher starts asking the players questions to establish who they are: what’s your name, your age, profession, where do you live…
7. The players start their conversation. The teacher helps as needed, but tries to let the conversation proceed.
At this point, our first class ended. I wrote up the current story line. We read it the next day in class, and then we re-played the beginning of the conversation until a logical ending again.
I didn’t know that I was supposed to establish time of day, time of year, and weather, but we’ll add that in the next time.
Tomorrow I plan to change some of the situation up (time, place)…don’t know how exactly yet. I added to what I wrote earlier, so we’ll read that first. Then we’ll break the class into more groups of three, and the other groups can have some minutes to play out the role. Evidently it’s also possible to join up all the “counselors,” for example.
It’s a really interesting game, and I can see why kids would like it! I’m going to try it with my advanced group of parents tonight.
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Thank you! I am going to try this on Friday!
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Let me know how it (went)!
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Michele – have you done more with PDL? I’m to present a 30 minute workshop on teaching with CI at North Carolina’s assoc of indep schools in October….I was looking for some graphics about the brain and stumbled onto this. It looks like fun AND fascinating.
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